Heading into No. 2 Iowa men’s wrestling’s Friday dual meet against No. 9 Illinois, 133-pound Hawkeye grappler Drake Ayala was ranked as the No. 3 wrestler in the country at his weight. On Friday, though, Ayala wrestled like there was no one ahead of him, defeating No. 2 Lucas Byrd, 4-2, en route to a 28-6 Hawkeye win.
Byrd, who has been ranked No. 2 since the preseason rankings in August, suffered his first loss of the season in Carver-Hawkeye Arena. And since those initial preseason rankings, Ayala has fluctuated in rankings due to a 15-10 loss to Stanford’s Tyler Knox early on.
While Ayala’s ranking has been murky, one thing has remained clear in that the Hawkeye has trailed the Illini wrestler for the whole season leading up to Friday’s matchup…